Disgust, Desire, and Durian
How Southeast Asia’s famously pungent fruit became a source of cultural identity and global demand.
How Kudzu Was Supposed to Save the South
Before it became a notorious invasive plant, kudzu was promoted as a solution to widespread soil erosion.
The Peacock Flower and Reproductive Resistance Under Slavery
European naturalists documented the peacock flower's medicinal uses but left its most consequential history behind.
How the Himalayan Blackberry Took Over the Pacific Northwest
The tangled history of an invasive plant and a scientist’s troubling quest to engineer a more efficient natural world.
A History Wrapped in Banana Leaves
How hallacas and the banana plant became intertwined in Venezuelan cultural memory.
Sassafras: From Scent to Science in American Medicine
How did sassafras go from cure-all to carcinogen? Its history links Indigenous knowledge, colonial trade, and modern scientific debate.
Cucumber: The Plant That Moves More than You Think
Be it with its curling tendrils or because of its desirable properties, the cucumber is defined by motion: vertical, horizontal, geographical, and digital.
Wild Rice and the Rights of Nature
A groundbreaking lawsuit asks whether wild rice, or manoomin, can hold legal rights under tribal law and the growing rights of nature movement.
The Medicinal Wood That Turned Water Blue
For nearly half a millennium, botanists sought the "true" identity of Lignum nephriticum, a mysterious marvel that confounded early modern science.
Za’atar: From Ancient Texts to Modern Conflict
More than an herb, za’atar shapes, narrates, and anchors identity and political dynamics of the Eastern Mediterranean and Sinai Peninsula.